Ever since the State Morons in Pierre changed the rules for TIFs (can be for economic development now) They have exploded. I suggest that we limit them to severely damaged lands and low-income housing. The school district just did ANOTHER opt-out, and lied to the public about our taxes increasing. A foot soldier left this comment about the opt-out on Turdbook;
As regular taxpayers are asked to fish into their pockets for $2.1 million of additional money, each year for the next 10 years, be reminded that just for the TIF package given to the developers of The Steel District, the Sioux Falls School District will forego (aka not collect) $1.05 million in real estate tax revenue from those parcels in 2026. For the TIF package given to the developer of Cherapa II, the Sioux Falls School District will forego nearly $1.2 million of real estate tax revenue from those parcels in 2026.
In other words if we started eliminating TIFs and close out the current ones our taxes would actually go down. Did you know that 80% of property taxes paid in the school district and city are from single-family owner occupied homes. So yes, we are paying for these TIFs. And for what? A parking ramp? Public art? Tequila Bar? Seriously! If we eliminated ALL the TIFs we have on the books now the school district would take in MILLIONS in revenue from the big commercial developments. Why are homeowners asked to pay the majority of taxes in Sioux Falls? It should be a 50/50 split between homeowners and commercial property. TIFs never have much of a ROI, studies for decades across the US have shown they don’t stimulate growth and produce very few jobs except when being built. TIFs are a boondoggle and the average Joe is taking it in the shorts. In memoriam of a certain developer who passed recently, the council should make steps to eliminate TIFs from our city, once and for all.
It’s utterly amazing. I’m old enough to remember when the Nixon tapes/transcripts proved that presidents actually swore. Then, contemporaneous to this, Ben Bradlee, from the Washington Post, published a book about JFK, entitled ‘Conversations with Kennedy,’ which talked about JFK’s propensity to swear as well. AND, at the time, many of us were shocked that our presidents swore on a regular basis. Perhaps, all of this speaks to our once naivety or innocence, but now, many years later, with our innocence totally shattered by the politics of our time, we have to put up with this embarrassing bullshxt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL8s5Cy40k0
Scott brought to the CRC a few yeares ago a concept to restrict TIFS in the Charter. The commission said no restrictions on TIFS. But if we were to come up with something for Article 2, or the Financial rules, we could actualy put in our charter the means for all revenue ordinances to go before a public vote of the voters, or at least at minimum, require a super majority vote of the council membership 75% of the council. Of course if they were play games with quorum rules, could do this with a simple quorum of 5 members with two absent, so for revenue bills, perhaps we need to set quorum rules also. 75% of 8 members would mean a 6-2 vote, anything less must go before the voters.